Mangmoom Card - is it ever going to happen?

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Heading back to Bangkok in 2 weeks. Have been following the "one card to rule them all" story for a few years, and it did seem the cross-system spider card was getting close to launch again a few months back

Any recent updates on this from anyone? Can't seem to find anything later than April.

Would be interested to hear where it stands now...

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For anyone new to the saga - the Mangmoom Card is supposed to be a stored value smart card which will be accepted for travel across the BTS, MRT, ARL systems so that multiple cards are not longer necessary.

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Actually it is already being used by 200,000 people as part of the testing period. The Ministry of Transport announced that, from 1st October 2017, Bangkok commuters will get to use the new Mangmoom (spider in Thai) Card — a stored value card that can be used with the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority’s NGV buses and at the interchange stations of the MRT system, the BTS Skytrain system and the Airport Rail Link system. The primary goal of the Ministry of Transport is that the joint ticket will be available for 5 routes: MRT Blue Line, MRT Purple Line, BTS Silom line, BTS Sukhumvit line and NGV buses. At first the Mangmoom card will be installed at interchange stations, such as Chatuchak Station, Asoke Station, Phayathai Station etc. All other stations will be upgraded to be able to use mangmoom cards by March 2018.

Edited August 2, 2017 by Estrada

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Actually it is already being used by 200,000 people as part of the testing period. The Ministry of Transport announced that, from 1st October 2017, Bangkok commuters will get to use the new Mangmoom (spider in Thai) Card — a stored value card that can be used with the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority’s NGV buses and at the interchange stations of the MRT system, the BTS Skytrain system and the Airport Rail Link system. The primary goal of the Ministry of Transport is that the joint ticket will be available for 5 routes: MRT Blue Line, MRT Purple Line, BTS Silom line, BTS Sukhumvit line and NGV buses. At first the Mangmoom card will be installed at interchange stations, such as Chatuchak Station, Asoke Station, Phayathai Station etc. All other stations will be upgraded to be able to use mangmoom cards by March 2018.

I'm not sure that you should believe everything that you cut and paste there Estrada.

Yes, for the 1 Oct launch on some BMTA buses - though I highly doubt that 200K people are "already using it" - where did you get that info????.

However, a big no for the MRT, BTS and ARL for at least 12 months (or longer) according to the latest update from Crossy from 11 July 2017;

Quote

The Low Income variant of Mangmoom (may be) operating on (some) buses this year.

But as yet, none of the rail operators have had any instruction from OTP / MOT / PM to start work modifying the systems to accept the card. Since there is no advantage to the operators to accept the card, they will do nothing until forced to (an issue not unique to Thailand).

The upgrade is not a small job with significant software changes needed to the front-end kit, blame the government committees for that with their highly complex business rules. I estimate 1 year to implement from a notice to proceed (and no contractors are involved yet).

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I'm not sure that you should believe everything that you cut and paste there Estrada.

Yes, for the 1 Oct launch on some BMTA buses - though I highly doubt that 200K people are "already using it" - where did you get that info????.

However, a big no for the MRT, BTS and ARL for at least 12 months (or longer) according to the latest update from Crossy from 11 July 2017;

I am sure that he will reply to this thread soon and can add more.

I originally served as an advisor to the MRTA in 1994 and have been following the progress of the Mass Transit system for the last 35 years. I have published articles on the Grey Line Monorail and BTS extensions here in Bnagkok. I get updates from the Minister of Transport, my fellow engineers working for CK, ITD, STEC, BTS, BEM, Siemens, Bombardier etc as well as the BMA. I got this update from a Thai engineer friend, who translated it from Thai. 200,000 cards were issued for testing during the current testing period. They need another 1 million cards. As I published above, the card cannot be used effectively until March next year.

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@EstradaI don't want to worry you but I'm afraid your sources are misinformed. Are you still in the transit industry? Fancy a beer? PM me.

As of today a total of no, none, nada, zero cards have been issued for test, anywhere. OTP have about 150,000 (have to verify the number) "Limited Edition" cards sitting in boxes on the 4th floor, but there's no equipment out there that can process them and no company set up to operate the clearing system (supposed to be sorted by MRTA).

BTS have received no instruction to implement the card, even with a Notice to Proceed today it's unlikely that it could be working in less than 18 months. Same with BEM and SRTET.

The only railway I know that will be using the card is the Red Line, opening in 2020 ish. It took a lot of persuading to get SRT to agree, and they still want their own card as backup.

EDIT As of now there are :-

180k Adult cards in stock at OTP, with another 100k on order.

1.5 million of the special dual-interface Low Income variant card on order, no idea of expected delivery date. These are the cards which will go live on the buses later in the year, maybe.

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One of the features of Mangmoom is the ability to class a card as "low income", persons registered as low income can get one of these (complete with a photo on the card).

The feature automatically loads to a set value each month which is usable only for travel (initially bus only). The idea being that the free bus will be phased out.

The government has decided that these cards will also entitle the holders to discount/free electricity and water, in order to be compatible with the existing ID card readers the cards need to have a contact interface as well as the normal contactless. Hence the need to buy >1.5 million dual-interface cards.

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One of the features of Mangmoom is the ability to class a card as "low income", persons registered as low income can get one of these (complete with a photo on the card).

The feature automatically loads to a set value each month which is usable only for travel (initially bus only). The idea being that the free bus will be phased out.

The government has decided that these cards will also entitle the holders to discount/free electricity and water, in order to be compatible with the existing ID card readers the cards need to have a contact interface as well as the normal contactless. Hence the need to buy >1.5 million dual-interface cards.

All going to be fun making it work.

Depressing news Crossy.

It really is beyond stupidity that commuters will still have to suffer for another couple of years while the MRTA and MOT work out how to implement a common ticketing platform that they first started discussing back in 2008! A requirement to implement such should have been part of the contract terms for every new contract since 2014.

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Tell me about it LG, myself and some very senior colleagues have been trying to get something on the lines of Octopus going since before 2008.

Thwarted at every turn by politics or commercial issues (or both).

We really need a government agency with teeth, along the lines of LTA in Singapore. What they say, goes, or else!

That fits with my recollection as well. I had friends who worked for BTS, and remember having discussions with them in the early 2000s, like 2004-06, about plans at the time for BTS and MRT to have some kind of joint ticketing system. And now more than 10 years later, zippo.

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@EstradaI don't want to worry you but I'm afraid your sources are misinformed. Are you still in the transit industry? Fancy a beer? PM me.

As of today a total of no, none, nada, zero cards have been issued for test, anywhere. OTP have about 150,000 (have to verify the number) "Limited Edition" cards sitting in boxes on the 4th floor, but there's no equipment out there that can process them and no company set up to operate the clearing system (supposed to be sorted by MRTA).

BTS have received no instruction to implement the card, even with a Notice to Proceed today it's unlikely that it could be working in less than 18 months. Same with BEM and SRTET.

The only railway I know that will be using the card is the Red Line, opening in 2020 ish. It took a lot of persuading to get SRT to agree, and they still want their own card as backup.

EDIT As of now there are :-

180k Adult cards in stock at OTP, with another 100k on order.

1.5 million of the special dual-interface Low Income variant card on order, no idea of expected delivery date. These are the cards which will go live on the buses later in the year, maybe.

Following yesterdays meeting with MRTA, BTS, and BEM and all interested parties it was announced that the MoU between BTS and BEM for the joint ticketing system, Mangmoon card will be signed on August 31.

For non-transport operators, there are currently negotiations with CP, Central and the Mall.

On October 1st, passengers will be able to use Mangmoon card with BMA buses, then by the end of 2017 - early 2018 the card used with the Airport Rail Link and the Purple Line. The MRT and BTS lines will gradually start implementing the card from mid 2018 onwards.

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